Monthly Archives: April 2018

Via Doctor of Credit, Chase has a new bonus for the Freedom Unlimited credit card offering 3x Ultimate Rewards points on all purchases for your first year. Note that there is no other signup bonus associated with this offer and that this card is subject to the 5/24 rule.

Also note that if you have a premium Chase card (e.g. Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, Ink Plus, etc.), you can transfer the points from your Freedom Unlimited card to your premium card, which would allow you to then transfer those points to airline and hotel programs. Also note that if you are a Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholder, you can use these points to pay for travel at a rate of 1.5 cents per point.

Personally, I don’t like to sign up for a new credit card unless it’s bonus is worth around $500. Let’s compare this card to an offer like that using the following assumptions:

Comparison card offers $500 back after $5,000 spend in 3 months.

Comparison card earns the equivalent of 1% cash back, so after completing minimum spend, you will have $550.

With those assumptions in mind, the break-even point for this credit card is $18,000 of spend in a year ($810 rewards assuming 4.5% in value back vs. $550 from the comparison card signup + $260 from $13,000 additional spend on a 2% cash back card). Essentially, you would be coming out ahead if you spent over $1,500 per month. I don’t think that’s that difficult for most people to do, so this offer may be well worth it if you are under 5/24.

The amounts are cumulative, meaning if you spend exactly $20,000 in your first year, you’ll have 100,000 Avios from the bonus + 20,000 Avios (i.e. one Avios per dollar of normal spend) for a total of 120,000 Avios. The $95 annual fee is not waived the first year.

The bonuses on the British Airways and Iberia credit cards have also been increased to match. All three cards are roughly the same, at least as far as worthwhile benefits are concerned (imo).

100,000 miles for $20,000 spend in a year is a nice bonus that we’ve seen quite a few times from Chase. It’s a good time to apply if you want more Avios right now, but you can also feel free to wait, as this offer will likely come around again in the future.

Via One Mile at a Time, the IHG anniversary free night is being devalued. Where it previously could be used at any IHG property worldwide, it will now be limited to properties that normally cost up to 40,000 points when redeeming an award. This change will go into effect for any certificates issued May 1, 2018 or later.

This drastically lowers the ongoing value of the IHG credit card. Personally, I will probably still keep mine open because there are still a few 40,000 point hotels in driving distance that could make a nice weekend getaway for me; however, it would not surprise me if many others are not in this situation and just end up canceling the card.